Smoked Duck (La Ventosa Ranch)

Joseph comes down, he does some laundry in our machines and also brings some bread that he made in one of his culinary school classes. So we had some salad, some bread and smoked duck. It was quite delicious, though expensive. Joseph talked about smoking his own duck, and while I wouldn't dissuade him, duck isn't exactly cheap...ever. But it was very good, worth having again, but an expensive meal.

Smoked duck from La Ventosa Ranch

Coyote Run Farm Grass Fed Beef burgers

As always, pretty good. I had thought about making sloppy sammys with this, but I didn't have the ingredients to do so.

Bratwurst with Juan O'Sullivan's Green Chile Verde

That Green Chile Verde is something else. Quite the dish, and it just adds so much flavor to anything that you put it on.

Grilled Ham, Cheese, and Pickle Sandwiches (p73 August 2011 Bon Appétit)

First I don't understand the title of this sandwich. In my mind ham does not equal prosciutto. There is no ham in this sandwich, but there is prosciutto. That being said, this was one of the most savory sandwiches ever. And that may be because I split the 3 oz package of prosciutto between two sandwiches, instead of four. It was divine. I added a little mustard and I was in a little slice of Sammy heaven. Make this sandwich. Use La Quercia prosciutto. No baloney, this is a reason why I could never go: a. meat free; b. pork free.

One of the best sandwiches ever.

Pasta with Butcher Crick Tomatoes (sort of based on this)

Ok, so I started with the thought of that, but didn't have enough tomatoes left, so, after wondering how to do it, and knowing that I had a lot of stuff left in the fridge, so I started adding several things to it to make it all work together, left over parmesan (quality stuff), ricotta (cheap), etc etc. I don't think I could reproduce it. I turned out well. We both had it for lunch the next day.

Pancakes

Skipped, went to Bandit Burrito instead. After a long day of cleaning (OCD kitchen for me, rest of the house for Shannon), getting Shannon's car's oil changed (dodging the upsale), having my furnace serviced, a visit from DirecTV (new DVR (which fixed the minor problem), woo!), I didn't want to mess up my clean kitchen. Now that I think about it, I still have quite a bit more to do (bottle shelf, dusted and cleaned, top of fridge, and clean out the inside of the fridge). So we chatted for a bit on where to go, and ended up with me going and retrieving a pair of burritos.